A circular scar on Alaska’s face speaks to an event that may have contributed to the fall of societies on the far side of the world.

Two thousand years ago, Alaska’s Mount Okmok volcano spewed ash high into the atmosphere, for months. Today, a crater 6 miles from rim to rim marks ground zero on Umnak Island, 75 miles from Dutch Harbor.

Scientists including Joseph McConnell of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, and Alaskans Jessica Larsen and Janet Schaefer are among the authors of a paper tying Okmok’s massive eruption to the weakening of Mediterranean societies and the subsequent rise of the Roman Empire.

By reflecting sunlight back into space, the particles Okmok injected into the atmosphere may have caused a cold period as much as 7 degrees Celsius (4 degrees F) below nor

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